1 . If you want to do your kids a favor, consider having them walk to school. Walking to school provides many benefits – improving academic performance, reducing anxiety, boosting spirits, better sleep, a sense of independence, having an opportunity to familiarize oneself with a neighborhood, to notice small details, to feel a sense of wonder at the surroundings. The list goes on.
Parental fears still exist, however. Parents are terrified of cars, of injury, of harsh weather, of encounters with strangers and wild animals. These fears prevent parents from letting their kids do something that's actually enormously beneficial to them, despite the fact that removing an opportunity to be active contributes to an increase in childhood obesity, which can have a greater negative impact on a child's life than the risk of being injured due to being active.
How do we go from being a society that does not encourage its children to walk independently to being one that does? Parents must face their own discomfort with letting go. Brussoni, an expert who researches children's outdoor and risky play, said "We want to move parents from focusing solely on protecting their child to building trust in their child’s abilities and strategies to support their child’s skills in navigating the streetscape."
Schools can play a role by encouraging children to walk to school. Brussoni offers additional suggestions: "They should promote a culture that walking to school is the norm, help educate parents on why this is important, and consider closing the streets around the school to cars before and after school."
Parents might do well to put themselves in their children's shoes. As adults, we know how good a morning walk feels to start off a day or to end one. Walking energizes us and cheers us up, and it can do the same for children. As we go through this pandemic that has shaken up all of our lives, it's a good time to practice new routines and establish new habits. Walking to school is a great place to start.
1. What can we infer about kids’ usual way of going to school?| A．They walk to school alone. | B．They are driven to school. |
| C．They ride bikes to school. | D．They are led to school by teachers. |
| A．Focus on their child’s safety. | B．Protect their child against injury. |
| C．Believe their child’s abilities. | D．Strike traffic rules into their child’s heart. |
| A．Schools. | B．Societies. | C．Governments. | D．Children. |
| A．To illustrate the roles of parents and schools. |
| B．To advise parents to have kids walk to school. |
| C．To promote a way of establishing a new routine. |
| D．To encourage kids to form a good habit. |
2 . I was on vacation with my husband, my brother, his wife and daughter. We were not familiar with the area and jumped onto a bus, thinking it would be a nice way to see the downtown’s old town area. Well, until visiting with the bus driver, we found out we were on the neighborhood route which picks up school children and delivers to various neighborhood places, with a route of well over about 2 hours. That was a surprise and a concern because we had parked our vehicle in a timed parking area and it was going to end.
We shared this with the bus driver only to let her know we were not from the area and apologized for getting on her bus in error. Then she surprised us further saying, “I get off shift after a few more blocks, and if you don't mind a tight squeeze in my company car, I'd be happy to take you back to your vehicle before the time is over.” The bus driver received permission from her manager, so we gratefully said yes to her offer.
She went out of her way to take us back to our vehicle after her shift was over and it wasn't on her route to home either. We were touched and grateful for her kindness and thoughtfulness. In return because she had shared some of her concerns about the school-age children she sometimes had on the bus route, I shared with her a little tip on how to quiet the children with an energetic technique that would make the ride safer for them as well as for her. She was so grateful. It was a wonderful exchange of kindness!
1. What was wrong with the author and her family ?| A．They got on a wrong bus. | B．They would lose their car. |
| C．They couldn't drive their own car. | D．They had to tour neighborhood places. |
| A．The timed parking area. | B．The family's concern. |
| C．The vehicle parked there. | D．The time limit for parking |
| A．Invite them to her home. | B．Ask her manager for help. |
| C．Drive them to where they parked. | D．Get off shift earlier than usual. |
| A．She taught her how to send children to school. |
| B．She taught her how to calm down children. |
| C．She gave her a tip for her good service. |
| D．She helped make her ride comfortable and safe. |
3 . The Japanese government, citizens and groups are debating what to do with radioactive water from the disabled nuclear power plant near Fukushinma. An earthquake on March 11, 2011 caused severe damage to three of the six nuclear reactors at the Fukushinma Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Since then, Japanese officials have been trying to contain and clear up the damage.
The Associated Press recently observed the decontamination (净化) process taking place there. Officials are trying to decide what to do with 1.2 million tons of radioactive water being stored at Fukushinma. The nuclear center is operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. , or TEPCO. The company says it needs to free up space as work on the damaged reactors reaches an important point. Many people expect TEPCO to slowly release the water into the ocean near the nuclear center. The government has already approved the plan.
However, it is not clear when the company will carry out the plan. Local people oppose it because that could hurt the fishing industry. Sales of fish caught off the coast near Fukushinma are half what they were before the nuclear disaster. Fish caught in the area have been approved for sale after radioactivity testing by health officials.
TEPCO Chief Decommissioning Officer Akira Ono said the water must be removed. He says crews need the space currently occupied by the water tanks. In their place, workers will set up structures to hold melted reactor wreckage(反应堆残骸).
People wear protective clothing and head coverings to work in the most radioactive areas around the nuclear center. But underground conditions remain dangerous and radioactive water is leaking from the melted reactors and mixing with groundwater. This water is being pumped into containers to keep it from flowing into the sea. The polluted water from underground is processed and filtered to remove dangerous radioactive elements. Tritium(氚) is the only radioactive material that remains. Japan's industry ministry and nuclear officials say tritium is not harmful in small amounts. However, although officials try to ease public fear, there are worries that fish might be affected if the water is released into the sea.
1. What do we know from the text?| A．The Fukushinma disaster was caused by humans. |
| B．Tons of radioactive water has been leaked into the ocean. |
| C．Melted reactor wreckage will take up most of the region. |
| D．Japan is struggling with the clean-up of radioactive pollution. |
| A．Making room for the damaged reactors. |
| B．Releasing the water into the nearby ocean. |
| C．Filtering the water near the nuclear center. |
| D．Storing the radioactive water in the nuclear center. |
| A．It can be found in the polluted water. |
| B．It has aroused great panic among residents. |
| C．It does no harm to fish. |
| D．It exists in a solid form. |
| A．The groundwater has been severely polluted in Fukushinma. |
| B．People in Fukushinma used to earn their living by fishing. |
| C．It is hard for the authorities to earn the public's trust. |
| D．It is unclear when TEPCO will remove the radioactive water. |
4 . You know that squeak(吱吱声)you hear from your pet mouse or the pest mouse? It turns out that it is 'not really a squeak, but a sweet song by male mice to attract females. This is the conclusion reached by biologist Dustin Penn and his team at the Veterinary University of Vienna.
The scientists who have been conducting a series of studies on house mice for a number of years, began by recording the high-pitched(声调高的)sounds male mice made the moment they sensed a female mouse around. What they discovered when they played them back to females was that the ladies could tell between those made by their brothers and the ones made by unrelated males. Just like human, they tended to ignore the ones made by their brothers.
The researchers then took the experiment one step further and analyzed the squeaks. To their surprise they discovered that while the squeaks sounded similar, they each had a different "tune". The biggest surprise of all was that the mice could even learn tunes from each other.
However, not all scientists agree with this finding. Some like Kurt Hammer, a scientist at the German Primate Center believe that the test sample was too small to make such a conclusion.
The researcher's next plan to test if the females care about the quality of the “song”. In some bird species, males that can sing the most complex tunes seem to get the most attention.
So why do we care whether mice can sing or not? Clearly, since they are being used as laboratory testers, it will help us make advances in human speech disorders like the ones found in people suffering from autism(自闭症).
1. What does Dustin Pen describe the squeak made by a male mouse as?| A．A hungry signal. | B．A sad cry. |
| C．A terrible noise. | D．A pleasant sound. |
| A．The male mice. | B．The female mice. |
| C．The squeaks made by the male mice. | D．The squeaks made by the female mice. |
| A．More studies should be made. | B．Mice are intelligent animals. |
| C．The conclusion is reasonable. | D．Mice shouldn't be studied. |
| A．It can find ways to kill mice. |
| B．It can inspire musicians with their work. |
| C．It can help treat human speech disorders. |
| D．It can find ways to select intelligent mice. |
5 . Anyone who commutes(通勤)by car knows that traffic jams are an unavoidable part of life. But humans are not alone in facing potential backups.
Ants also commute—between their nest and sources of food. The survival of their habitats depends on doing this efficiently.
When humans commute, there’s a point at which cars become dense(稠密) enough to slow down the flow of traffic, causing jam. Researchers wanted to know if ants on the move could also get stuck. So they regulated traffic density by constructing bridges of various widths between a colony of Argentine ants and a source of food. Then they waited and watched, trying to find out at what point they are going to have a traffic jam.
But it appears that that never happened. They always managed to avoid traffic jam. The flow of ants did increase at the beginning as ants started to fill the bridge and then levelled off at high densities. But it never slowed down or stopped, even when the bridge was nearly filled with ants.
The researchers then took a closer look at how the behaviour of individual ants impacted traffic as a whole. And they found that when ants sense overcrowding, they adjust their speeds and avoid entering high-density areas, which prevents jams. These behaviors may be promoted by pheromones, chemicals that tell other ants where a trail is. The ants also manage to avoid colliding(碰撞) with each other at high densities, which could really slow them down.
Can ants help us solve our own traffic problems? Not likely. That’s because when it comes to getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, human drivers put their own goals first. Individual ants have to be more cooperative in order to feed the colony. But the research could be useful in improving traffic flow for self-driving cars, which can be designed to be less like selfish humans—and more like ants.
1. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Surviving. | B．Commuting. | C．Finding food. | D．Avoiding jams. |
| A．Through closer observation. | B．By regulating their numbers. |
| C．By finding out the dense points. | D．By controlling the widths of their path. |
| A．They follow a special route. |
| B．They level off at high densities. |
| C．They never stop or slow down on the way. |
| D．They depend on their natural chemicals to adjust their speeds. |
| A．Traffic jams | B．Survival of an ant colony |
| C．Unavoidable? Not for ants! | D．Differences between human and ants |
6 . Devon Gallagher, a college graduate from Philadelphia, wants the world to know exactly where she’s been while she’s on her worldwide vacation in a special way. The traveler, who was born with a bone disease, had her right leg amputated (截肢) at the age of four. Although the amputation caused inconvenience for Gallagher early on, she now sees it as nothing short of inspiration for living her best life.
To spread that message. Gallagher has gone to social media, where she shares photos of her travels across the world, but instead of simply using a geo-tag(地理位置标签), she writes her location on her artificial leg before taking a picture.
Now she has been taking pictures across the Continent, which show her cycling over the canal in Amsterdam relaxing on a wall overlooking the city of Barcelona, posing with a waffle in Brussels, taking in the beautiful Parthenon temple in Athens and enjoying a river ride in Budapest, all with the well-known locations written on her artificial leg.
“I get a new leg every two years and I can choose the design on it. One day I had a sudden thought to get a chalk-board,” Gallagher said. “My mum and grandmother didn’t like the idea, but my friends thought it was great and told me to go for it, so I did.”
Gallagher said people often stare when she’s writing on her leg, but once she shares the photos, she receives only positive feedback(反馈), “My leg hasn’t stopped me from doing anything I’ve wanted to do,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s my determination to prove to myself that I can do it, anyway, I’ve been able to keep up with people at my age and lead a pretty great life.”
Gallagher shows us that you should never let anything stand in the way of your dreams. And if life gives you an artificial leg, make art.
1. What message did Gallapher want to spread in her special way?| A．She enjoys her travelling across the globe. |
| B．She suffers little from her leg’s amputation. |
| C．she looks on her misfortune as another form of blessing. |
| D．She has exactly fallen in love with posting photos online. |
| A．the continent | B．the pictures | C．the leg | D．the location |
| A．helpful and ambitious | B．friendly and generous |
| C．determined and creative | D．independent and sensible |
| A．Never Too Late to share | B．A Special Artificial Leg |
| C．An Outstanding Photographer | D．Gallagher’s Summer Holidays |
There is a plan to build a new supermarket on the edge of the Whitefields housing estate（住宅区）, on the land where the local library now is. I live at Whitefields, and I would like to express my concern about this plan. It is not that I am completely against the idea of building a supermarket—I just think that as a community we need to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages before committing ourselves.
It is clear that the library is under-used and in poor condition. It is also clear that there are very few shops near here and a supermarket would be a good thing to have. But the people who want to build the supermarket seem to think that no one wants the library any more, and that it isn’t a must because of the Internet and so on. Is this necessarily true, especially for elderly people? What about young people who don’t have the Internet at home and need to go to the library to do their homework? Where can they study if they have to share a room with a younger brother or sister?
On the other hand, there is an argument that a new supermarket would not only bring more choice of shopping and more convenience for local people, but it would also bring some much-needed jobs for younger people in the town—and this is a good point. What we need to do is consider the effect a supermarket will have on our quality of life. Certainly local people, including me, will find shopping a lot easier and more convenient. But there will also be extra traffic. In a few years from now, the roads in and around will be full of cars in the daytime and delivery lorries at night, and not only that—we will have got used to it, too. Are more jobs and more convenience worth such an influence on our daily lives? Perhaps, but this is what we have to ask ourselves.
I believe that all the people of Whitefields, and the authority, need to discuss this question in an open-minded way—and I hope that by the time a decision is taken, we will have had a full and fair discussion of the issues involved, and that the local authority will have really listened to everyone’s view. Is that too much to ask?
Yours faithfully,
Tom Watkins
1. The supporters of the supermarket probably think ________.| A．the library is no longer needed |
| B．the library is too poor to be rebuilt |
| C．the supermarket brings down goods price |
| D．supermarket increases local workers’ income |
| A．Shopping convenience. | B．Job opportunity. |
| C．Life quality. | D．Traffic condition. |
| A．Approving. | B．Neutral. |
| C．Negative. | D．Confident. |
| A．To promote effective public reading. |
| B．To call for concern over an urban project. |
| C．To discuss ways of improving life quality. |
| D．To express dissatisfaction with public equipment. |
8 . A new study, conducted by British company Mindlab International, has found that listening to music at work increases accuracy and speed, The Telegraph reported. Perhaps, some parents disagree with this idea, saying, "Switch off the music and concentrate!" Well, if that's the case with your parents, you might now be able to convince them that you have science on your side.
The company gave 26 participants a series of different tasks for five days in a row, including spell checking, mathematical word problems, data entry, and abstract reasoning. The participants completed these tasks while listening to music or no music at all.
The results showed that while music was playing, 88% of participants produced their most accurate test results and 81% completed their fastest work. David Lewis, chairman of Mindlab International, told The Telegraph, "Music is a very powerful management tool if you want to increase not only the efficiency of your workforce but also their emotional state... they are going to become more positive about the work."
However, you may have a list of your favorite songs, but not all kinds of music match all homework. For maths or other subjects involving numbers or attention to detail, you should listen to classical music, the study found. In the study, pop music enabled participants to complete their tasks 58% faster than when listening to no music at all. If you are reviewing your English writing, pop music is the best choice, as it is the best kind for spell checking. It cut mistakes by 14%, compared to listening to no music. After finishing your homework, do you often take time to check your answers? Maybe, some dance music is suitable for you.
1. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?| A．Music helps us to learn |
| B．We cannot live without music |
| C．Different music, different lives |
| D．Music in the classroom. |
| A．Persuade their parents to listen to music. |
| B．Listen to the same music together. |
| C．Try their best to choose the most suitable music. |
| D．Finish tasks with music or without music at all. |
| A．tools | B．results |
| C．tests | D．participants |
| A．Classical music | B．Dance music |
| C．Pop music | D．Rock music |
9 . Tayka Hotel De Sal
Where: Tahua, Bolivia
How much: About $95 a night
Why it’s cool: You’ve stayed at hotels made of brick or wood, but salt? That’s something few can claim. Tayka Hotel de Sal is made totally of salt—including the beds (though you’ll sleep on regular mattresses (床垫) and blankets).The hotel sits on the Salar de Uyuni, a prehistoric dried-up lake that’s the world’s biggest salt flat. Builders use the salt from the 4,633-square-mile flat to make the bricks, and glue them together with a paste of wet salt that hardens when it dries. When rain starts to dissolve the hotel, the owners just mix up more salt paste to strengthen the bricks.
Green Magic Nature Resort
Where: Vythiri, India
How much: About $240 a night
Why it’s cool: Riding a pulley(滑轮)-operated lift 86 feet to your treetop room is just the start of your adventure. As you look out of your open window—there is no glass!—you watch monkeys and birds in the rain forest canopy. Later you might test your fear of heights by crossing the handmade rope bridge to the main part of the hotel, or just sit on your bamboo bed and read. You don’t even have to come down for breakfast—the hotel will send it up on the pulley-drawn “elevator”.
Dog Bark Park Inn B&B
Where: Cottonwood, Idaho
How much: $92 a night
Why it’s cool: This doghouse isn’t just for the family pet. Sweet Willy is a 30-foot-tall dog with guest rooms in his belly. Climb the wooden stairs beside his hind leg to enter the door in his side. You can relax in the main bedroom, go up a few steps of the loft in Willy’s head, or hang out inside his nose. Although you have a full private bathroom in your quarters, there is also a toilet in the 12-foot-tall fire hydrant outside.
Gamirasu Cave Hotel
Where: Ayvali, Turkey
How much: Between $130 and $475 a night.
Why it’s cool: This is caveman cool! Experience what it was like 5,000 years ago, when people lived in these mountain caves formed by volcanic ash. But your stay will be much more modern. Bathrooms and electricity provide what you expect from a modern hotel, and the white volcanic ash, called tufa, keeps the rooms cool, about 65℉in summer.(Don’t worry—there is heat in winter.)
1. What is the similarity of the four hotels?| A．Being expensive. | B．Being beautiful. |
| C．Being natural. | D．Being unique. |
| A．The building of Dog Bark Park Inn B&B. |
| B．The name of a pet dog of the hotel owner. |
| C．The name of the hotel. |
| D．The name of the hotel owner. |
| A．Tayka Hotel De Sal |
| B．Green Magic Nature Resort |
| C．Dog Bark Park Inn B&B |
| D．Gamirasu Cave Hotel |
